Gov. Gavin Newsom Wants Mandate For Oil Companies To Create Stockpile Of Gasoline

Authored by Leslie Eastman via LegalInsurrection.com,

Legal Insurrection readers may recall the report about Chevron’s California operations.

Chevron had been headquartered in California for over 140 years, giving it strong roots in this state. However, the toxic policies of California’s lawmakers and regulators have killed those roots.

The fossil fuel giant will relocate to Texas.

Sacramento sees gasoline firms and petroleum refineries as cash cows that will always agree to be milked despite being made into a climate villain and accused of corporate greed.

So, to resolve the state’s serious energy challenges, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a special session Saturday after the Assembly rebuffed his efforts to pass an energy package before a critical deadline passed.

Newsom’s plan mandates that the state’s oil companies create gasoline stockpiles.

California Governor Gavin Newsom plans to propose legislation requiring oil companies in the most-populous US state to amass stockpiles of gasoline and other fuels to prevent supply shortages and price spikes during refinery outages.

Such reserves would shield Californians who already pay some of the highest pump prices in the nation from the sort of run-ups seen in 2022 and 2023, said Tai Milder, a Newsom appointee who leads the state’s Division of Petroleum Market Oversight. If such a measure had been in place, it would have saved consumers as much as $650 million last year alone, he said.

The governor’s plan signals an intensification of Newsom’s long-running battle against the fossil-fuel industry and comes less than two weeks after Chevron Corp. announced plans to shift corporate headquarters to Texas after 145 years in the Golden State. In recent years, retail gasoline prices in the state surged to $6 a gallon, spikes the Newsom administration blamed on a shortage of backup supplies when refiners reduced operations to perform repairs.

“Price spikes at the pump are profit spikes for Big Oil,” Newsom said in an email. “Refiners should be required to plan ahead and backfill supplies to keep prices stable, instead of playing games to earn even more profits. By making refiners act responsibly and maintain a gas reserve, Californians would save money at the pump every year.”

Inflation is hurting the average Californian. However, gasoline is still a good value for money, especially compared to the inflation rate for food.

Compared to September, fuel price inflation is broadly unchanged for 2023, but lowered from 5.8% to 3.2% in 2024. Our food price inflation forecast for 2023 remains high at 10.6%. The forecast for 2024 is slightly higher at 5.5%. pic.twitter.com/35KQTDHtUK

— BILALSTECH (@BILALS_TECH) November 23, 2023

Newsom’s proposals will likely do nothing more than drive the closure of even more refineries and firms that support the fossil fuel industry. That may be his objective, but unless a lot more of those Generation IV nuclear reactors start appearing or lithium battery fires stop erupting, it is going to be increasingly difficult to sustain the California lifestyle that Democrats from this state tout.

The petroleum industry has pushed back, saying the mandate would hurt consumers.

The Western States Petroleum Association said the bill would punish refiners into withholding supplies and hurting consumers.

“Governor Newsom’s refinery supply mandate will create artificial shortages of fuel in California, Arizona, and Nevada by forcing refiners to withhold fuels from the market. Lawmakers who vote for this mandate will be voting to increase gas costs for their constituents,” said Catherine Reheis-Boyd, CEO of the Western States Petroleum Association.

If Newsom and the state legislature did anything to help consumers, it was surely purely coincidental.